Wall Street’s Week of Reckoning

AIG's Martin Sullivan is out, and everyone else is waiting for the ax to fall. Plus! Former 'NYT' editor Howell Raines picks on Poynter blogger Jim Romenesko, a Central Park West penthouse goes on the market for $80 million, and more, all in our daily roundup of finance, media, real-estate and law news.

0 Shares

Share

Martin Sullivan out!Photo: Patrick McMullan

FINANCE• A rough week could be ahead: Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley are announcing their earnings this week, and it might not be pretty. Investors are expecting write-downs totaling as much as $9 billion, and analysts are predicting that Goldman will post a 30 percent fall in earnings. [Independent]• Ousted! American International Group CEO Martin Sullivan "resigned" from the helm of the insurance giant in the wake of steep losses triggered by subprime-mortgage investments. [NYP]• Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, the former Bear Stearns hedge-fund managers whose fund collapse marked the start of the credit crisis, could get slapped with criminal charges this week. Best line?: "Bear Stearns never quite recovered" [WSJ]

MEDIA
• The Associated Press is going to define the standards by which bloggers and Websites can excerpt without infringing on the AP's copyright. Is it okay to say that?[NYT]
• Time Warner is cleaning house: After recently selling off its Time Warner cable division, the media conglomerate is hoping to find a buyer for AOL's dial-up business. [NYP]
• Is Jim Romenesko's site "Gawker with morals"? [Portfolio]

REAL ESTATE
• Two 15 Central Park West penthouses have gone on the market in the last few weeks at sky-high prices (one starting at $80 million after having closed in April for $21 million), and according to brokers, they are already attracting interest from a stream of billionaires.
[NYT]
• Tenants at 220 Central Park South just won a small victory in court that could delay the demolition of the building for a 41-story glass tower. Their lawyer, Jack Lester, says the ruling marked the first time the court had found that environmental regulations might be used to protect tenants under the state's rent-stabilization law. [NYT]
• A stretch of 34th Street might be named after the man who founded Macy's. But not forever — just for a month. [City Room/NYT]

LAW
• New York lawyer Robert Morvillo, one of the go-to members of the criminal bar, has some explaining to do: Two of his law firm's high-profile clients appear to be fugitives. [City Room/NYT]
• Ten U.S. partners and two dozen associates have voluntarily left Thacher Proffitt & Wood in the past six months after a severe slump in structured finance, which has prompted the New York–based firm to cut at least 60 associates from its payroll. [Law.com]
• An increasing number of courts across the United States are prohibiting witnesses and victims from uttering certain words in front of a jury, banning everything from the words "rape" to "victim" to "crime scene." [Law.com]